This species was first recorded in the UAE in 2018 during a bat survey in the Hajar Mountains when specimens were obtained from three different localities; Wadi Shees (Sharjah); Wadi Abadilah (Fujairah), and Wadi Ashashah (Ras Al Khaimah) (Jomat et al. 2018). It is unknown whether this species has always been present in the UAE or is a recent arrival. There are a few records of the species from the Hajar Mountains in Oman (Harrison and Bates 1991). Globally, the species occurs in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa, Turkey, the Caucasus, Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia (Piraccini 2016).

There are records from Al Ain, Baynoonah and Umm al Zummoul in Abu Dhabi, the Aweer area of Dubai and further north into the Al Madam Plain (Aspinall et al. 2005, Drew and Tourenq 2005). There is a record from Jebel Ali (airport site) on the UAE birding website and it is known from the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (G. Simkins pers. comm. 2018) and probably at Al Marmoom; and also at Dulaima and Bridi in Sharjah (K. Budd pers. comm. 2018). However, there are no records in the last ten years from protected areas in Abu Dhabi and there may be some confusion in the identification of this species and Meriones arimalius. The conformed distribution is patchy and the species may occur more widely in desert areas. There are no records from the mountains. The global range extends across North Africa, south to Sudan, then east to Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East and western Pakistan (Granjon 2016a). It is widespread in the Arabian Peninsula (Harrison and Bates 1991).

This species was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Meriones libycus, with the type locality at Jabrin, Saudi Arabia and distribution restricted to the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula, in Oman, UAE and parts of Saudi Arabia (Harrison and Bates 1991). Specimens have been recorded at a point along the Abu Dhabi-Buraimi road and Jebel Faiyah, Fujairah (Harrison and Bates 1991) and Sweihan, Umm Al Zummoul, and Al Khatam in Abu Dhabi (Drew and Tourenq 2005). It occurs around Al Ain and is often seen on spotlight surveys around the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife, Sharjah. It may occur more widely across the UAE. Casola (2016b) restricted M. arimalius to the Rub Al Khali of Oman and Saudi Arabia, stating that it may also occur in southern UAE, but this disregards the records reported above from the UAE sector of the Rub Al Khali and localities farther north. So far, all published specimens from UAE have been identified as M. arimalius, and only this species is mapped here. However, the possibility that M. lybicus also occurs in the country cannot be completely excluded.

This species is rarely recorded in UAE waters. It has occasionally been recorded off the East Coast (Baldwin 1995). An examination of whales reported in the Gulf since 1883 confirmed eight records of Humpback Whales, including Holocene remains of one specimen from Abu Dhabi, but none of the other seven records was from UAE (Dakteh et al. 2017). Four of the records were from Iran. Two strandings and one sighting of a mother-calf pair also have been recorded for the Gulf of Oman coast of Iran (Braulik et al. 2010, Owfi et al. 2015). A number of sightings have also been recently reported off the coast of Pakistan (Moazzam and Nawaz 2017). The last known sighting on the east coast was in 1979 at Khor Fakkan though this species is likely to travel past this shoreline from time to time. On 9 October 2017, a number of sightings and video recording of a mother Humpback and calf off the coast of Dubai were reported to the UAE Dolphin Project (<a href=""http://www.uaedolphinproject.org"">www.uaedolphinproject.org</a>), the first recent record of live Humpback Whales in the Gulf. These sightings support the hypothesis (Dakteh et al. 2017) that the Gulf may be part of the natural home range of the Arabian Sea Humpback subpopulation and reconfirm the importance of regional collaboration on conservation efforts. It is also one of the very few occasions that a mother and a calf of this species have been observed in the region in the past 20 years. The Arabian Sea Humpback Whale (ASHW) subpopulation is the only one known in the region. There are a number of records for the northwest Gulf of Oman near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz (Baldwin et al. 1999, Minton et al. 2011, Pomilla et al. 2014) and it is a reasonable assumption that a this is a single stock with continuous distribution into the Gulf (Dakteh et al. 2017). Whaling data and recent scientific research confirm that the ASHW subpopulation is small and isolated (Minton et al. 2011). The known distribution includes the waters of the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Iran, Pakistan and India with potential for occurrence in other states of the North Indian Ocean region, but so far almost all data comes from Oman (Mikhalev 2000, Baldwin 2000, Minton et al. 2011). Research completed over the past two decades in Oman provides compelling evidence that the ASHW population is the world's most isolated and genetically distinct population of humpback whales, separated from conspecifics for an estimated 70,000 years (Pomilla et al. 2014). It is also the smallest and most endangered subpopulation of this species. The available scientific data clearly indicate that ASHWs remain within the Northern Indian Ocean year-round and are isolated from Southern Indian Ocean populations (Minton et al. 2011, Pomilla et al. 2014). However, their movements within the Arabian Sea remain poorly understood, due to a lack of dedicated research effort in any range state other than Oman. Humpback Whales in all other populations migrate between distinct feeding and breeding grounds that are typically separated by thousands of kilometres, and it is reasonable to assume that ASHWs engage in at least some level of transboundary movement between the waters of the range states where they have been documented to occur. This is supported by a recent record in 2017 of a female whale recorded with satellite telemetry crossing from Oman to India, and back. The tracked whale, after spending a few weeks engaged in small-scale movements in the Gulf of Masirah (Oman), then suddenly headed across the Arabian Sea to a location just off the coast of Goa, India reaching later the southernmost tip of India, before returning to Oman. There are two records of this species northwest of the UAE in the Arabian Gulf. It is still reported in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, but nearshore development and fishing pressure may have reduced its former range here (Baldwin 2005) and it is more often recorded in the Arabian Sea though even here it is rare. Globally, the Humpback Whale is found in all the major ocean basins. All subpopulations except the one in the Arabian Sea migrate between mating and calving grounds in tropical waters, usually near continental coastlines or island groups, and productive colder waters in temperate and high latitudes (Reilly et al. 2008b).

Photographic evidence of a stranded individual at Al Bidiya, Fujairah, in October 2000, indicates that Kogia sima occurs off the east coast of the UAE and it is known from adjacent Omani waters to the south (Baldwin 2005). An earlier record from the Arabian Gulf was erroneous (Baldwin et al. 1999). A boat-struck individual whale, identified as this species by the Emirates Marine Environment Group, was found dead on the beach at <a href=""https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment/group-chances-upon-dead-sperm-whale-in-dubai-1.655977"">Palm Jebel Ali, Dubai, July 2010.</a> Globally, this species appears to be distributed widely in offshore waters of tropical and warm temperate zones (Taylor et al. 2012b).

Sparsely distributed in desert areas and not recorded in the mountains. Mostly known from the deserts of Abu Dhabi and also recorded from sites near the coast at Jebel Ali (Jongbloed et al. 2001, Aspinall et al. 2005). It is occasionally seen in Sharjah Emirate but has not been seen in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) for several years (G. Simkins pers. comm. 2018). It is most commonly seen in protected areas away from human activities and is scarce outside protected areas. It is a very difficult species to trap in Sherman traps (though easier in cage traps) and details of the distribution are unclear. This species is widespread in the Arabian Peninsula and inhabits sand desert and stony steppe (Harrison and Bates 1991), and found throughout North and Northeast Africa, to southwestern Iran (Amori et al. 2016b).

Until very recently there was only one anecdotal report of this species in the UAE, from western Abu Dhabi Emirate (Gasperetti 1967). The first confirmed records were obtained on 30 October 2015 on the eastern side of Wadi Wurayah National Park (N.P.) in Fujairah Emirate, when an animal was photographed by camera traps set up as part of a monitoring programme (Chreiki et al. 2018). Porcupines were subsequently camera-trapped in November 2015 and again in November 2016, and there was a visual observation by a park ranger in March 2017. Interviews with 26 farm owners and workers elicited a further eight direct reports of sightings all near farms or roads on the eastern side of the National Park (Chreiki et al. 2018) and locals confirmed that the species had been in the area for 30-40 years. The species was also recorded in December 2017 at Mirfa in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi (R.M. Al Zaabi pers. comm. 2018) and there is another recent record from Barari, Dubai. Subsequent inquiries have revealed a record from 1997 or 1998 of a porcupine feeding after dark at a bag of waste from a small company overnight picnic site in Fujairah (G.R. Feulner pers. comm. 2018). The nearest record of this species in the region is at Hayma on the Jiddat Al Harasis in south-central Oman (Harrison and Bates 1991), about 600 km away. In the Arabian Peninsula, the species occurs in southern Oman, southwest Yemen and western Saudi Arabia as well as the northwest of Arabia and in Iraq (Harrison and Bates 1991). This species has been recorded from Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean through the Middle East to Central Asia, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka (Amori et al. 2016).

Striped Hyaenas are believed to have been widely distributed in former times, but there are no specimens and reports are extremely sparse. It was reported present on Jebel Hafeet by Thesiger (1949); on the Al Ain-Dubai road, in Bani Yas and Liwa in the 1980s (Duckworth 1996); one was seen crossing a track between Awhala and Khor Kalba (Gross 1987); there was a report from villagers in Wadi Helo, near Kalba, in June 1996, and there is a probable sighting between Al Ain and Sweihan in December 1996 (Hellyer 1997). Spoor thought to be that of Hyaena was seen near the Shah oil field, south of Liwa in 1999 (Aspinall et al. 2005, Drew and Tourenq 2005). Residents of the higher part of Musandam said that hyenas used to occur there (Jongbloed et al. 2001). There have been no confirmed recent records and the species is no longer considered to occur in UAE. The international borders between Saudi Arabia, Oman and UAE are fenced, except for some of the highest mountain areas, preventing or hindering movement, so natural recolonization of the UAE by the species is highly unlikely. The Striped Hyaena has a very large, albeit now patchy global distribution, extending across North, Northeast and East Africa, south to about central Tanzania, and through the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, and northern Indian subcontinent (AbiSaid and Dloniak 2015). It has become rare in most parts of the Arabian Peninsula, mainly because of ongoing persecution (Mallon and Budd 2011).

The Arabian Tahr is endemic to the Hajar Mountains of Oman and UAE, extending for about 600 km from Musandam to Jebel Qahwan, south of Sur, with a small population on the outlying Jebel Hafeet (Insall 2008). The former distribution in the UAE is not known in detail and no systematic survey has ever been carried out. There are confirmed records from Jebel Hafeet in Abu Dhabi and Wadi Wurayah in Fujairah, as well as some local reports from elsewhere. A villager in Wadi Safad, Fujairah reported “wa'el' in remote parts of the wadi (Hellyer 1994). A survey of Ru'us Al Jibal in Ras al Khaimah Emirate found no signs of the Arabian Tahr and local people there did not know the species (Environment and Protected Areas Authority 2006). The latest record of tahr in Wadi Wurayah N.P. is a camera trap photo taken in October 2012 (Al Bustan Zoological Centre and Environment Agency -“ Abu Dhabi 2015, Judas 2016). Tahr may still occur in very low numbers in the national park or they may already be extinct there. Arabian Tahr are still present on Jebel Hafeet, which is shared between United Arab Emirates and Oman; nine tahr were camera-trapped there in 2015 (Al Zaabi and Soorae 2015). In 2017 the Dubai Municipality environment team obtained camera trap images of tahr inside the Hatta enclave which is surrounded on three sides by Omani territory. This population was not included in the status review that formed part of the national conservation strategy (Al Bustan Zoological Centre and Environment Agency -“ Abu Dhabi 2015) and may have moved to the area recently. Recent surveys in Oman have confirmed the presence of Arabian Tahr close to the border with UAE, but the border is now fenced in the lower part, though animals may still be able to move across the higher ridges.

This species generally lives in deep water and is apparently relatively common off the east coast of the UAE. There are no confirmed occurrences in the Arabian Gulf where the habitat is not suitable as this is a deep-water species (Baldwin 2005). Globally, this is a widely-distributed species, inhabiting deep waters of the continental slope and outer shelf, from the tropics through the temperate regions in both hemispheres (Taylor et al. 2012a).